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Youth and Grassroots Initiatives

TEST (Teplitsa, rus. Greenhouse, of Social Technologies) is a greenhouse for social innovation and initiatives. It was organized several months ago and now is a popular hub for social entrepreneurs to get noticed.

Strelka is the most prominent space for young people to create something great and start thinking in a whole new communicative way. The mission of the organization is to create better future of Russia by rising a new generation of young leader today, who will become change agents tomorrow. Instead of teaching internet and communication, IT and coding for applied science they do the opposite. Strelka teaches media, urban design and culture. That's it. This is what social future is all about - no politics, IT or statistics in a separate way anymore. Media, urban design and culture.

Crowdfunding is fenomenal and found itself efficient in US and EU. Projects like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo are experiencing renassance now. And it's time for developing countries to show the potential. As there's no robust startup business in Eurasia yet, but rather an over-developed startup culture, these kind of projects exist in a whole new way. International experience comes to Russian internet space and here's how.

Here's a detailed translation of Daria Alekseeva's presentation with comments - the concept of crowdfunding in Russia in a 30-something slides. Enjoy!

BarCamp is a classic unconference that is all about internet and interesting projects in communication. The format takes conference to the next level by giving an opportunity to delegates to fill in the agenda with their talks on the day of conference. What is interesting about Armenian BarCamp lies in the themes of presentations - most of them are about uniting internet and civic movements. Initiative group of young leaders is the organizer.

Delai Samis an interdisciplinary marathon of events organized twice a year — in the spring and fall — by and for citizens. Anyone can organize an event in the city and participate or assist with scheduled activities. It's the mixture of barcamp and aggregator of the best urban ideas for getting people together and solving problems... in a smart way.